Bush vs. Gore: The Candidates on Education, Issue by Issue

Emphasizes increased
flexibility in exchange for more accountability. Would require
states to give mathematics and reading tests to all students in
grades 3-8 who attend schools receiving federal Title I aid and
to publish annual school-by-school report cards with student
performance broken down by race and income. States that failed to
improve student achievement over five years would be required to
place the administrative portion of their federal aid into a fund
for charter schools. Would offer bonuses to states and schools
that made the most progress in improving student
achievement.

Would require that
states and districts take aggressive action to turn around
poor-performing schools. Schools that failed to improve after two
years would be shut down and reopened as charter schools or
"reconstituted" schools, and their students would receive access
to after-school and summer programs. States that failed to
improve student achievement and close the achievement gap would
be required to divert the administrative portion of their federal
aid into a fund to help poor-performing schools. Would offer
financial rewards for significant progress on achievement and
require states and districts to publish school report cards
annually.

SCHOOL
CHOICE/VOUCHERS

Supports vouchers for
students in failing Title I schools that do not improve their
students' performance after three years. Such schools would be
required to give a portion of their federal aid to students to
enable them to attend another school, whether public or private.
Would seek to double the number of charter schools by 2003 by
creating a Charter School Homestead Fund, which would provide $3
billion in loan guarantees over two years for such costs as the
acquisition, leasing, and renovation of facilities.

Opposes publicly
funded school vouchers. Would help triple the number of charter
schools by 2005 by increasing funding for the existing federal
charter schools program and creating an "incubator" fund to help
provide temporary space for charters until they obtained
permanent facilities. Would create competitive-grant program to
help bring public school choice to 100 of the lowest-performing
districts nationwide.

TEACHER
QUALITY

Would combine existing
federal funds for professional development, class-size reduction,
and the Goals 2000 school reform program into a flexible new fund
for teacher training and recruitment, with $400 million a year in
additional money. In return, states would be required to
establish teacher-accountability systems. Would establish a
teacher tax deduction to help defray teachers' out-of-pocket
classroom expenses.

Would spend $8 billion
over 10 years to help recruit new teachers to high-need schools,
with plans to provide college aid, loan forgiveness, and signing
bonuses. Would spend another $8 billion to provide salary
increases of up to $5,000 each to teachers in high-need districts
that adopted aggressive plans to improve teacher quality, and up
to $10,000 to teachers certified by the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. Would require states to ensure
that all new teachers pass rigorous assessments. Would require
that schools receiving federal Title I aid guarantee that all of
their teachers were fully certified by 2004.

EARLY-CHILDHOOD
EDUCATION

Supports a greater
educational focus for Head Start, in part by putting it under the
Department of Education's supervision. Head Start providers would
have to emphasize reading and school readiness to receive federal
grants. Also would require grant recipients to adopt core
curricula, and would award contracts on a competitive basis to
spur improvements.

Proposes spending $50
billion over 10 years for a new grant program that would provide
incentive funds to states that guaranteed access to preschool for
all 4-year-olds. Would increase Head Start funding. Would spend
$8 billion over 10 years for grants to improve the quality of
child care and ensure that such programs emphasized learning.
Would offer expanded tax breaks estimated to cost $30 billion
over 10 years to make child care more affordable.

READING

Would establish a new
five-year, $5 billion initiative to help ensure that all students
learned to read by the 3rd grade, with an emphasis on
disadvantaged children. Participating states would be required to
include phonics-based instruction in their programs, train K-2
teachers in reading preparation, and test students in grades 3-8
in reading.

Would continue support
for the $260 million Reading Excellence Act, which issues
competitive grants to states for reading initiatives aimed at
ensuring student literacy by the 3rd grade. His campaign also
links reading improvement to other initiatives, such as universal
preschool.

AFTER-SCHOOL
AID

Would revise the 21st
Century Learning Centers program to allow faith-based and
community organizations to compete for its funding. Currently,
only schools may apply for the funds. Also would spend $400
million a year to provide low-income families with certificates
to help defray the costs of after-school care.

Would dramatically
increase federal spending on the 21st Century Learning Centers
program, doubling President Clinton's $1 billion request this
year to $2 billion for the after-school initiative. Would create
a new tax credit to help middle-and low-income families defray
after-school child-care costs. Would provide grants to help
recruit and train staff members to assure high-quality
after-school programs.

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